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What makes something fair in sports? What
is fairness?
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Is there ethics in sports beyond good
sportsmanship or following the rules?
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How much of athletics is physical and how
much is mental?
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Is athletic skill a special kind of
intelligence, or understanding things with the body?
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Can athletic skill be considered
beautiful? Athletic bodies? Athletic events?
Dozens of high
school students will work with philosophy coaches from Montclair State’s
Institute for the
Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC) in the Institute’s
first ever Socratic Athletica! In this innovative day-long
workshop, students will explore questions like those above in small
inquiry teams, deepening their thinking and expanding their perspectives
on the philosophy of sports, while they learn and practice fundamental
skills of reasoned dialogue.
"Philosophy
is a method of inquiry into ethical, aesthetic and logical aspects of
our ordinary experience,” says IAPC Director Maughn Gregory. “Doing
philosophy helps us make our everyday experience more just, more
beautiful, and more reasonable, and many young people take these issues
more seriously—and more playfully—than many adults.” For over 30 years
the IAPC has engaged pre-school through high school students around the
world in original philosophical inquiry that improves their reasoning
and social skills while helping them make more sense of their
experience.
Socratic Athletica! will be held at
The Yogi Berra Museum and
Learning Center on the campus of Montclair State University
(see
campus map), adjacent to
the Yogi Berra Stadium, home of the New Jersey Jackals. The Center
is a non-profit venue, dedicated to
preserving and promoting
the values of respect, sportsmanship, social justice and excellence
through inclusive, culturally diverse, sports-based educational programs
and exhibits.
As Yogi Berra says, “When you get to a fork
in the road, take it!” Share this one-of-a-kind educational experience
with your students on October 9, 2007.
